TRAIN [FIRST DRAFT]

Chapter 17: How to Make Sense of All This

 Molly and Clifford were flummoxed when they saw the additional car parked in their driveway, Celeste's car. Stefan and Aimee moseyed past Gavin's car door; he was putting sunglasses into his cubbyhole with one hand and was clasping the steering wheel with the spare. Then, Aimee and Stefan joined her parents on the porch. She was anxious to see what their reactions would be towards their new guest. She knocked, and soon after, Celeste opened the door with a discordant and unwilling aura, but she wired her spine instantly and endeavoured a smile, directed at Aimee's parents. They however, were not as coerced into kindness as Celeste wanted them to be. They cringed at the sight of her. They remembered her from that fancy French diner, despite her new appearance.

Aimee swiftly sensed their hostility and, for some reason, felt the need to intervene. She introduced the three and watched as they stiffly shook hands.

"Celeste offered to clean and housesit if we let her live here with us," Aimee bravely explained.

"We're opening our home to kidnappers now?!" shrieked Molly.

Stefan cleared his throat, "Can we explain everything at suppertime?"

"Well someone'd better start cooking!"

"What are you doing?" asked Celeste, baffled.

"Would you keep quiet – I'm trying to help you," she murmured through her teeth as her parents stepped into the house with heavy feet.

"I know that," Celeste whispered dutifully, and then she sighed, speaking no further.

They heard another voice approach the door, "I let Mitchel know we'd be here for the rest of the even–" his words became slower, and then ceased entirely.

"Gavin, this is –"

"Jane."

"Jane?" whispered Aimee, her eyebrows magnetised towards each another. "No, this is... Celeste Williams." The girl in question stood gritting her teeth subconsciously.

Gavin shook his head as to bring himself back to his senses, "Sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"Yeah, no worries."

A silence followed that. Uncomfortable, wandering expressions appeared on their faces. That was when Stefan had to remind them once again about dinner.

Celeste and Gavin both eagerly volunteered to cook, while Aimee's parents showered the dirt from the day off their bodies. She and Stefan sat on the living room couch to talk about GINM and AIM. A conversation they would probably repeat once the food that they smelt was precisely cooked and dished onto Molly's porcelain china. Stefan told Aimee about the RDAs, that they were created for teenagers with absentee or deceased parents.

"Valerie and Finn come from a wealthy family line, so when their parents died, they left them their fortune. But instead of staying in Mullingar, they came to America to join GINM. They wanted to be more than just rich kids. They wanted to make a difference in the world."

"Are there children in the Ranked Division?"

"Our youngest RDA is a girl named Kimiko Kei from Japan. She's been studying martial arts for years and she's only thirteen. She has blue highlights in her hair."

"I saw her," Aimee said in remembrance.

She was the girl at the screen, watching the rankings. She was second place. She was good.

"Stefan, I'm so sorry about how I was in The Arena, I shouldn't have said what I did. You weren't in my way, just... I don't know, I-I wanted to be independent for once. I've been extremely immature since I met you, because you allow me to be. You're always getting yourself hurt because of me," she glanced at his leg, where his jeans seemed abnormally thicker. She laid her hand on his.